Pliers for attaching fasteners



y 1966 G. T. LE PAGE ETAL. 3,250,450

PLIERS FOR ATTACHING FASTENERS Filed Dec. 10, 1963 i INVENTORS GeraidT LePaqe. William 5. Shae.

United States Patent Company, Waterbury, Conn., a corporation of Connectrcut Filed Dec. 10, 1963, Ser. No. 329,545 1 Claim. (Cl. 227144) This invention relates to pliers for attaching fastener parts to a piece of supporting material, such as a garment.

The improved tool can be employed to set a stud or socket element of a snap fastener by means of 2. prong ring, or it may be employed to set a hollow eyelet. For this dual purpose, one of the jaws of the pliers is provided with a turntable which mounts two separate tools, either of which can be brought into registry with the die or anvil on the other jaw of the pliers.

While it is recognized that it is old, broadly, to have a combination tool where difierent parts are brought into registry selectively, our novel construction is more economical to manufacture, and easier to operate than anything which is known in this field. It employs a single plastic molding with an integral mounting pin extended through the plier jaw and held by a spring. It can thus be manually lifted away from the jaw and turned about such central pin to locate the desired tool, whereupon it will snap into place with a locking projection fitting into a hole in the plier jaw.

Another feature of the invention is that of a simple and economical device for retaining either the prong ring or one of the fastener parts in position on a clinching die or anvil. This consists merely in a small length of flexible tubing which can be cut from a long extruded piece and stretched over the outer cylindrical surface of one of the dies. It is thus held adequately by friction while at the same time, the free edge portion protruding beyond the die surface tends to curl inwardly to form a lip for holding a work piece, such as the prong ring or fastener part.

Other objects and advantages of our invention will hereinafter more fully appear.

In the accompanying drawing, we have shown for purpose of illustration, one embodiment which the invention may assume in practice. In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a side view of a pair of pliers having our invention combined therewith;

FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-section through the plier jaws in open position;

FIG. 3 is a similar view showing the jaws closed;

FIG. 4 is also a vertical cross-section through the jaws in open position, but here the jaws are inverted with respect to the positions as shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, and also, a different position of the turntable is indicated;

FIG. 5 is a plan View of the inner side of the turntablegand FIG. 6 is a detailed perspective view of the elastic retaining element before assembly.

The pliers shown have a pair of handles 7 and 8, pivoted in the usual manner at 9, and carrying jaws 10 and 11, respectively, which are adapted to he opened and closed by the handles.

The jaw 10, which in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 is the upper jaw and in FIG. 4 is the lower jaw, has an inner flat bearing surface 12 in which there is a hole 13 and on opposite sides thereof, smaller holes 14 and 15.

The turntable, generally designated 16, consists primarily of a single piece of molded plastic material having a flat base surface adapted to bear against the inner surface 12 of the jaw 10. The turntable is mounted by means of an integral outwardly extending pin 17 ex- 3,259,453 Patented May 10, 1966 tending through the hole 13, a coil spring 18 which surrounds the pin 17, and a snap-on collar 19 which confines the spring.

On opposite sides of the pin 17 and projecting inwardly of the jaw 10, are a pair of projections 20 and 21, at least the latter of which has a cylindrical outer surface and each of the projections has a central hole extending axially therethrough. On the projection 21, there is mounted in stretched condition, an elastic sleeve 22 which grips tightly against the outer surface of the projection 21 to hold it in place. be cut from an ordinary piece of thin-walled extruded tubing, is long enough to extend beyond the die to provide a curled lip 23.

Our improved tool is shown as being employed to attach a socket element 24 of a conventional form of snap fastener.

The projection 21 has substantially the same diameter as the socket element so that the element is retained in place by means of the lip 23 gripping around the rim of the socket element. In this setting operation, the projection 21 may be referred to as a die or an anvil die. When the stud element of a snap fastener is being attached, the central hole through the projection 21 will serve to accommodate the bulbous portion of the stud element.

The other projection 20 carries an eyelet setting tool 25 having an outwardly projecting pin 26 which fits tightly in the central hole of the projection 20 and is long enough to extend beyond the base of the turntable 16 to provide a projection 27 which is adapted to fit in one or the other of the holes 14 and 15. In FIGS. 1 and 2, it is shown as fitting in hole 14 while FIG. 4 shows it in hole 15. The eyelet tool 25 also has a punch head 28 at its inner end.

On the jaw 11, there is mounted a metal die 29 having a hollow shank 30 adapted to snap into a hole in the jaw 11 for loosely holding it in place. This die also has a cylindrical outer surface 31 which meets a shoulder 32 bearing against the inner surface of the jaw 11. Stretched around this outer surface, is the elastic sleeve ele-rnent.33 similar to the sleeve 22 on the other jaw, and this provides an in-turned lip 34 into which can be snapped the standard prong ring 35.

In order to set the snap fasteners, it is only necessary to put the socket or the stud element in place in the turntable 16 when it is positioned as shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, and also, the prong ring in the manner just described. The jaws are then closed whereupon the prong rings pierce the cloth indicated in FIG. 2 at 36 and clinch into place in the breast portion of the socket or stud element.

Now, when it is desired to set an eyelet, the turntable is lifted slightly away from the jaw 10 and turned to the position of FIG. 4. An eyelet 37 is then put in place on the eyelet tool 25 and as the jaws are closed, the head 28 of the eyelet tool cooperates with the edge of the central hole 38 in the die 29 to pierce the material to which the eyelet is to be secured. Further closing of the jaws will rivet over the barrel of the eyelet, and for this purpose, the die 29 has a circular recess 39.

As seen in FIG. 5, the turntable 16 is generally elliptical in shape, with the mounting pin arranged centrally, and with the projections 20 and 21 located on opposite sides of the mounting pin. The outer surface of the turntable 16 may be serrated as indicated at 40, to assist in manually lifting the turntable to disengage the projection 27 from one of the holes 14 or 15, and to facilitate turning of the table to the position where the projection 27 can snap into the other hole so as to locate the desired tool opposite the die 29.

This sleeve, which can What we claim is:

Fastener setting pliers comprising (a) a pairof handles;

(1)) apair of jaws;

(c) pivot means intermediate said handles and jaws;

(d) a die mounted on one jaw and facing inward-1y toward the other jaw;

(e) said other jaw having a cylindrical hole therethrough which is located closer to said pivot means than said die;

(if) a unitary turntable having an integral cylindrical pivot pin arranged centrally thereof, said pin projecting through said hole and beyond said other jaw and having a free sliding and turning fit in said hole;

(g) a spring surrounding said pin on the outer side of said other jaw;

('h) a spring retaining device attached to the outer end of said pivot pin;

(i) whereby said turntable may be pulled away from said other jaw and turned about the axis of said pin;

(j) a pair of projections on said turntable located equidistantly from and on opposite sides of said pivot pin and extending inwardly toward saidone l (k) means on one projection for releasably retaining a fastener part;

(l) the other projection having a hole extending axially therethrough;

(m) an eyelet setting tool supported in said other projection and having an outwardly extending pin fitting tightly in said axially extending hole;

(11) said other jaw having a pair of recesses spaced from said pivot pin in accordance with the spacing of said projections and in which the outer end of said outwardly extending pin may be selectively engaged to hold the turntable in a position where either one or the other of said projections is in line with said die.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1 1,513,356 10/1924 Watson 227-144 3,019,442 2/1962 Hoeckele 22714l 3,171,132 3/1965 Dritz 227-60 WILLIAM FELDMAN, Primary Examiner. R. v. PARKER, JR., Assistant Examiner. 

